Album Review: Mastodon "Emperor Of Sand"

2 1/2 out of 5

Halfway through the track "Clandestiny" it hit me: Mastodon are the new Rush.
Or at least a modern spiritual successor utilizing Rush's formula. Does that make any sense?
The biggest hurdle for the listener who approaches each new Mastodon album looking for something  punishingly heavy is that (for several albums now) you've been met with catchy, technical, riffy semi-Prog.
Their melodic tendencies and focus on crisp production has really weighed them down on recent releases. For a band that made its' name by shredding through math-y dirges about Moby Dick this new pristine Hard Rock exterior feels jarringly false. You can't help but feel that under the yowling Alice In Chains clone "Show Yourself" there's a band dying to unleash a fury that their management and pocket books just won't allow.
But as the swirling synth bridge hit the vocal melody on "Clandestiny" the whole album suddenly made sense to me. Their new found awareness of streamlined Pop mixed with their penchant for fantasy concepts has finally coalesced into a package that isn't too challenging but simultaneously not as insulting to fans as "The Hunter" was.
"Sultans Curse" and "Precious Stones" both have satisfying gallops and big choruses that'll please the radio rock fans who jump when Foo Fighters release something new, but both also contain enough weird goofiness to keep the sci-fi nerds of the Metal community content.
Part of the renewed sense of cohesion has to be the result of producer Brendan O'Brien, who previously helped them navigate the waters of out-and-proud Progressive Rock on "Crack The Skye". Although this album isn't populated with 10 minute long epics, the same consistency of that record is found here. Gone are the mix-tape sensations of "The Hunter" or "Once More Round The Sun" and it's refreshing to see them back in a groove.
This album was a slow burn and it took several listenings for me to really gel with it. It's by no means a great album; there's a few duds in the mix, but as far as modern Hard Rock goes it keeps things more interesting than other groups of a similar profile.
Once I figured out that the band is going for "Moving Pictures" and not "Remission" I was able to go with the flow. It's technically better than the other shit on Rock radio, for whatever that's worth.